


The way to a woman’s heart is through her stomach

by Tonxi



Series: Sanvers Is Endgame - Series [10]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Maggie flashback, Mexican Food, Sanvers - Freeform, borken Maggie, slight mentioning of violence, supporting Alex
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-08
Updated: 2017-08-08
Packaged: 2018-12-12 21:11:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,039
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11745285
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tonxi/pseuds/Tonxi
Summary: Alex cooks enchiladas to surprise Maggie but the Mexican food triggers some bad memories...





	The way to a woman’s heart is through her stomach

**Author's Note:**

> Slight hinting of violence/rape!  
> It's a bit heavier but has a somewhat happy ending.

Maggie rushed out of the station and to her bike. She hated being late, especially when the lateness cut away time she would otherwise spend with Alex. Also, she had a suspicion that the guilt she always felt when being late had a lot to do with most of her previous relationships where her being late had always been a problem. Or at least a symptom of the putting her work before her private life problem.

Maggie put her helmet on and tried to calm herself down for a moment, reminding herself that Alex was different, that Alex had a similar job and knew the lateness problem all too well. They had talked about it a few times – either when Alex had been late and feeling guilty or Maggie.

But being late was not a reason to risk her life while pushing her bike to its limits on her way home, so Maggie breathed deeply before she kicked her bike into action mode.

Maggie was glad she had taken her bike to work this morning because traffic was bad and at least this way she was able to slip between the cars and was home more quickly than she had expected. As she was still about twenty minutes late, she sprinted up the stairs and rushed into Alex’s apartment, eager to see what the surprise was that Alex had hinted to her earlier in a text.

“So sorry, babe”, Maggie said before she was even through the door. “I got hold up by an alien selling a drug we never laid eyes on before and…”

She stopped in her tracks after closing the door behind her – for several reasons: First of all, Alex was standing in the kitchen, actually cooking. She had done that, well at least she had tried doing that a few times before, but usually this had involved a lot of cursing, chaos and a smoke detector being violently thrown into the trash. Right now however, Alex was standing in the kitchen making something that looked like Guacamole and just smiled over her shoulder at Maggie.

“Not a problem”, Alex assured her. “I run late myself actually. I wanted to be done when you got home but the Avocado I got from the grocery store wasn’t ideal so I had to rush to another one to get a backup avocado.”

“A backup avocado?”, Maggie grinned back teasingly, but she still was somehow rooted to the spot by the door. Something didn’t feel right and it had nothing to do with Alex trying to cook. Maggie had a strange contracting feeling in her chest which she couldn’t quite place for a moment, until it hit her. It was the smell. It smelled like enchiladas. It wasn’t a bad smell. Actually, Maggie was pretty sure that according to the smell, her girlfriend had achieved her goal at finally cooking something edible. It was the memories that were inevitably linked to the smell of enchiladas.

Alex had finished her Guacamole task and seemed to recognize that something was off because she quickly washed her hands and walked slowly over to Maggie, still in her position by the door. Maggie realized vaguely that she had one hand to her gun, probably she had wanted to take it off and lie it next to Alex’s by the door, she wasn’t sure.

“Before you say anything, I practiced this menu five fucking times to be sure to get it right, but if it doesn’t taste as good as I think it should, then we’ll just drop by the Mexican place down the road”, Alex explained, presumably taking her shock and quiet for appropriate mistrust concerning her cooking abilities.

“No, it smells delicious actually”, Maggie replied after a short pause, her voice somehow slightly hoarse. _Damn it, pull yourself together, Maggie._

Alex looked at her in concern, placing her own hand on top of Maggie’s that was still holding on to her gun and pulling it out of her grip carefully to place it on the counter next to the door.

“What is it then?”, Alex wanted to know in a quiet, soothing voice, not letting go of her hand. “Something went down at work? You wanna talk about it?”

Maggie shook her head still feeling like she had been smacked in the guts.

“Okay, why don’t we sit down for a minute”, Alex suggested, helping her girlfriend out of her leather jacket and throwing it over a bar stool, pointing over to the couch. Maggie nodded and let herself be led over by Alex.

“Babe, you’re kind of freaking me out a bit”, Alex confessed with a small, hollow laugh. “What’s up? What happened?”

“Nothing, it’s…”, Maggie stuttered. “Nothing.”

She couldn’t believe it how a smell could get her this affected. Here she was with the most amazing girlfriend she could ever have imagined who was a terrible cook but still had made the effort to practice to be able to cook them a decent meal, even making sure it was a Mexican one. She should be thrilled but all she wanted to do was flee the scene to get that smell out of her system. But she had agreed to not shut Alex out anymore, to not run away when it came to her feelings. Still, this was ridiculous. She shook her head.

“Mags, it’s obviously not nothing”, Alex stated and Maggie could hear the alarm in her voice now. “Talk to me… please?” Her tone was pleading now.

Maggie looked at her, seeing love and concern written all over Alex’s face. Feeling her bottom lip quiver, she put her fingers over her mouth and looked away again.

“Hey, babe, it’s okay”, Alex assured her, her voice back to quiet and soothing. She placed a hand on Maggie’s leg but shied away quickly when Maggie had twitched at the contact.

“Did somebody touch you?”, Alex asked with a broken voice, her mind obviously jumping to worst case scenarios.

“No, I’m fine”, Maggie replied in an attempt to calm Alex down. “Nothing happened. Well not today at least.”

“Okay”, Alex said, seemingly not entirely convinced. “Are you saying that you had a… a flashback or something?”

“I suppose you could call it that”, Maggie answered. “But it’s not what you think, okay?”

Maggie looked over at Alex again, who she could tell was seriously trying not to freak out. She decided then and there that she had to tell her now what was going on with her. She really hadn’t meant to set Alex into panic mode as well.

“It’s just the smell, it… kind of reminded me of something”, Maggie tried to explain.

“I told you, we could go and eat out if it’s not good”, Alex interrupted. Maggie’s mouth twitched into a short smile.

“Yeah, but the problem is that it smells delicious”, Maggie went on. “Actually, it smells exactly like the enchiladas my Mom always used to make. And that’s kind of the problem…”

Maggie sighed.

“It’s kind of ridiculous, I know, but she was making them when Eliza Wilkin’s parents phoned over and… I don’t know, the smell just triggered a whole lot of memories I would rather forget. I’m sorry, it just totally caught me by surprise and I…”

“No, Mags, I’m sorry”, Alex cut in between with a soft voice. Maggie could tell that she wanted to touch her but refrained from it, her hands looking somehow lost in between. “I’m sorry that that happened to you and I’m sorry that I reminded you of all of that.”

Alex got off of the couch and walked over to the windows to open them up. “I’ll text Kara. She will be thrilled to have them. She was my first test object, you know and said she really liked them and we, you and me, we can go over to that Italian place to get pizza and then crash at you place, okay?”

Maggie didn’t know what to say for a moment. She had turned to observe Alex opening every single window her apartment possessed, trying everything she could think of to make her feel better. Maggie hated being the source of the pain that was edged onto Alex’s face and she hated that she felt like this broken 14 year old girl she thought she had outgrown by miles by now. Seemingly, she had been wrong.

“No, Alex, stop”, Maggie said and gestured for her to come back over. Alex hesitated, opened the last window and made her way back onto the couch, making sure not to touch her while sitting down. Noticing that, Maggie took both of Alex’s hands into her own.

“You can touch me, I’m sorry I startled away earlier”, Maggie assured her, her voice still quivering slightly. “It’s just, I was totally back in that moment and as there was a good lot of hitting involved it kind of caused me to twitch. It’s got nothing to do with you okay?”

She had never told anyone about that before. Her aunt had asked her about the bruises when Maggie had fled to her after being thrown out of her parents’ house but had given up asking after a short version of events that Maggie had presented her with, trying desperately not to break down while telling her.

Maggie bit her lip. Alex pulled her in slowly, checking her face for permission to hug her. Maggie let herself be pulled into a warm and rather tight embrace, snuggling her face into Alex’s shoulder. The smell of Alex calmed her down somewhat and she breathed deeply for a few times, noticing how she was actually gripping into Alex’s shirt.

“It’s okay, Mags”, Alex whispered into her ear. “I got you. Nobody will hurt you. You’re safe with me.”

It was as if Alex had said it to the 14 year old version of Maggie because it hit dead centre. Maggie couldn’t help but sob into her shoulder, holding on to her girlfriend. Alex stroked over Maggie’s head soothingly, pulling her in even more.

“It’s okay”, she kept on saying over and over again until Maggie seemed to calm down a bit.

“Sorry”, Maggie murmured when her breathing had finally eased out. “I’ve never… broken down like this before.” She moved out of Alex’s hug, looking rather embarrassed.

“Maybe that’s the problem”, Alex offered, still holding on to one of Maggie’s hands, keeping her grounded.

“Maybe”, Maggie agreed. She was probably right, but she still felt quite unsteady with all of this. There was a short pause before Alex said: “Why don’t you go to the bathroom, freshen up a bit and I will text Kara and get ready so we can head out to that pizza place?”

Maggie looked at her for a moment, considering. It sounded like an appealing plan but it also felt like running away and she wanted to stop doing that.

“No”, she finally answered. “I… I want to stay here and try them.”

Alex looked at her in surprise, already halfway to her phone to text Kara.

“You don’t have to just because I made them, Mags”, Alex said and she looked like she meant business. Maggie smiled.

“I know, but I can’t keep clear of Mexican food for the rest of my life”, Maggie explained, her voice still a bit raw, but she didn’t feel as bad as before. Somehow getting all this out had helped. “I don’t want to avoid all… that… all the time. Running away shouldn’t be an option, you taught me that.”

“Yeah, but we can take it slowly”, Alex replied. “It was a big step talking about it, maybe we’ll save the eating enchiladas for another evening?”

“That’s rich coming from Miss-All-In”, Maggie teased. She was glad when Alex responded with a genuine smile.

“You sure?”, Alex asked again, to make sure.

“There is Guacamole, so yeah, I’m sure”, Maggie answered, smiling back at her. Alex grinned. Then her face fell, shocked, as she rushed over to the oven to turn it off.

“Oh no, it’s my fault if this is all black now, babe, okay?”, Maggie said, quickly getting off of the couch and joining Alex by the oven.

“No, no, I think it’s fine”, Alex exhaled relieved.

“Wow, this looks good”, Maggie stated, looking over Alex’s shoulders when she opened the oven. The new wave of smell that hit her unsteadied her again for a second. Alex put the casserole on the kitchen counter and looked at Maggie in concern.

“Don’t even dare to ask one more time”, Maggie cut in between when Alex opened her mouth to say something. She closed it again, then seemed to consider and replied: “Okay, then you get the Guacamole and I will try to get these things onto some plates.”

Maggie nodded and settled herself on the couch with the Guacamole. On the living room table were already waiting some taco chips she hadn’t noticed earlier, so she grabbed one and dived it into the Guacamole.

“This is delicious”, Maggie called over to Alex who was busy with manoeuvring an enchilada onto a plate. Maggie was actually rather surprised at how good the Guacamole was, considering Alex’s usual ‘cooking’. She smiled to herself.

“What’s so funny?”, Alex wanted to know when she joined her with two plates of enchiladas, including sour cream and red mole.

“Wow, look who’s a star cook now”, Maggie stated, teasingly.

“It’s vegan by the way”, Alex explained, handing Maggie knife and fork before she trailed back to the fridge to get out two Corona beers for them. “I even got this strange vegan cheese you told me about.”

Maggie smiled at her fondly. Alex had gone out of her way to prepare this for her.

“All the more reason to try it”, Maggie said, feeling slightly nervous all the same.

“Hang on a sec, I want to make sure first it’s good enough”, Alex ordered and cut a piece of the steaming food to try it for herself. She chewed, her face critical until she swallowed and said: “Okay, we’re all set. Ready whenever you are. Take your time, okay?”

Maggie laughed.

“You sound like you’re preparing me to see a body, Danvers”, Maggie teased, grinning. Alex grinned back, obviously very relieved her girlfriend could make jokes again.

“I mean it though”, Alex said in a low voice. “I’m here, okay? And pizza is still an option.”

Maggie nodded. Then she took her fork and knife and cut a piece of enchilada, dipping it into the mole and sour cream. She hesitated slightly, closing her eyes before putting it into her mouth. A delicious taste hit her senses. It tasted slightly differently than her mother’s version but in a good way. When Maggie opened her eyes again, she found Alex observing her intensely which made her smile brightly.

“It’s fabulous Alex, you’ve really outdone yourself”, she said because she knew that Alex was awaiting her verdict. Alex narrowed her eyes for a moment as if she didn’t believe her and then asked “And how do you feel?” as if this was much more important to her than her own cooking quality which it probably was, Maggie thought. Maggie considered for a moment, taking another piece. Her heart was still hammering against her chest, but she didn’t feel as heavy as before, even somewhat relieved.

“Like there’s somehow loosened a blockage”, she finally answered, smiling. “And I’m feeling very honoured that I get to taste the first decent thing you cooked for anyone.”

Alex looked somewhere between relieved and hurt, but laughed.

“You’re something else”, she grumbled and got back to eating her own enchiladas.

“And you’re not the first person”, she went on. “As I said, Kara got to taste the ‘dress rehearsal’ so to say.”

Maggie went back to their conversation before.

“Hang on a second, you said, you cooked that five times already?!”, she blurted out, remembering Alex’s words.

“Yep”, Alex confirmed, looking adorably proud of herself. “And I might have had my Mom on the phone too, to make sure I don’t forget anything.”

Maggie chuckled.

“You’re… I don’t know, I don’t even have words to describe how wonderful you are”, Maggie said, smiling her bright dimply smile. Alex beamed back.

They ate in silence for a bit. Maggie noticed that Alex was observing her out of the corner of her eyes. She wasn’t sure if this was because she wanted to make sure that Maggie was okay or because she tried to detect some sort of distaste.

“The Guacamole is different”, Maggie said after they had finished and she helped herself to some taco chips. “In a good way!”, she added when she saw Alex’s expression. “I was actually serious when I said that it’s delicious Alex, so please stop worrying.”

Alex nodded and explained: “Well, as I’m not too good with measuring how much lemon to put into it, I researched a different version with sour cream instead of lemon.”

“Well, I like this version”, Maggie assured her, underlying it by plunging another chip into the Guacamole. She had exaggerated it a bit with the quantity of the green sauce because half of it got stuck at the right corner of her mouth. Alex smiled and leant in to kiss it away.

“Hey, that was mine”, Maggie complained, grinning.

“Well, I just thought I could add some more positive memories to that food”, Alex defended herself, shrugging her shoulders innocently and making this adorable look with her beautiful big eyes wide open and her mouth pulled to the side.

Maggie chuckled again.

“You know, I find that to be a very good idea”, Maggie whispered, leaning over to Alex to kiss her back. “I could use some reaaaally good memories with this food.”

“Is that so?”, Alex asked playfully, knowing exactly what Maggie was angling at. “Then I have a very difficult choice to make for you.”

Maggie looked at her questioningly.

“Well, I have tiramisu in the fridge…”, Alex explained. “So, what do you want first: tiramisu or me?” She grinned devilishly at Maggie.

“Oh, I think I’ll take the tiramisu _on_ you”, Maggie replied calmly, grinning back when Alex’s eyes widened in surprise.

**Author's Note:**

> Thx for reading! Comments are always appreciated :)  
> Note that I'm not a native speaker so I'm also thankful for any corrections.
> 
> You can find me over on [tumblr too: Tonxi](http://tonxi.tumblr.com/)


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